Eagles

“We Started Running the Shit Out of the Ball” – Todd Herremans Recalls 2013 Snow Bowl and Reveals Original Eagles Game Plan

By Kevin Kinkead

Published: Sep 5th, 2023 · 1:50 PM EDT

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Former Eagles lineman Todd Herremans joined us on Crossing Broadcast Tuesday afternoon.

He shared some fantastic stories over the course of 40 minutes, but this one about Shady McCoy and the 2013 Detroit Lions snow game stood out:

“I don’t really get super-nervous about playing against guys, but I knew it was going to be wet. It was supposed to be wet that day. And I was like ‘Fuck, I gotta play against (Ndamukong) Suh in this wet-ass grass? He’s gonna be all over me.’ And I remember coming out pregame and see snow starting to come down, and I was like ‘okay, I’ll take that.’ So I go back into the locker room and got dressed, came back out, and it just dumped (snow). They’re clearing the field off and I’m thinking ‘this is great, this is great, all of that skill is going to get thrown out the window and all I gotta do is just kind of cover him up.’ Shit, we ran the ball a lot that day. Shady went off. That was a lot of fun… No idea how he did it. That was just very impressive. The funny thing is, going into that game, I think in our game plan we had a whole bunch of quick bubble screens. It was like ‘we’re not even gonna let Suh be a factor.’ And I remember it was somewhere in our first 15 (scripted plays), one of those bubble screens, I don’t think we even completed it because you couldn’t even see out to the hash. I’m like ‘dude, this game plan sucks.’ How are we gonna run these bubble screens when you can’t even see the sidelines? Then they just picked maybe two plays and we started running the shit out of the ball. I don’t know how he was able to not slip and fall all over the place that day.” 

Suh finished with 10 tackles and one QB hit and that was it. The Entire Lions team did not muster a sack or a tackle for loss over the course of four quarters. Philly ran the ball for 299 yards and four touchdowns, improving to 8-5 and capping a five-game winning streak.

100 degrees outside? Cool off with a Snow Bowl story from @toddherremans pic.twitter.com/NH5IfMKrap

— Crossing Broad (@CrossingBroad) September 5, 2023

We also got into Philadelphia fan and media culture in 2023, and Herremans hit the nail on the head regarding the athlete experience here.

“I don’t think it’s hard to play in Philly. It’s hard to play in Philly if you’re thin skinned. But you don’t want fans who are going to love you no matter what. You want fans who are going to hold you accountable. These are all people who are paying money to come and watch you and they’re setting up their entire fall around your season. As long as you can realize the depth that football has here in Philadelphia, if you can realize how important it is to some people, and don’t make light of it, then they’ll love you. Show up, do your job, don’t lose a game and then shrug it off (like) ‘ah whatever, there’s another game coming this week.’ I don’t think it’s hard to be liked in Philly. I think it’s hard to play in Philly if you have thin skin.”

Here’s the full episode: